The History of Why I'm Tired of Your Modern Shooters

I'm an adult, there's nothing wrong with liking my cussing and Gorn. Frankly, I'm glad that's one less thing they are doing to try and appeal to as wide an audience as possible.

I still love many games that aren't M, or anywhere near it. But that's not why I love them. You could throw gorn into almost any one of them and I wouldn't mind. That depends too though, Gorn in say... a Nippon Ichi game? Sure, that could work. Gorn in.... say... Little Big Planet? Nah.

If you think the addition of gore in a Disgaea game wouldn't completely ruin the atmosphere we're on really different wavelengths.

Of a certain kind. Not sure what levels your thinking of.

And no, I didn't mean Disgaea specifically. But something like Soul Nomad might've benefited from more of it.

edited 29th Apr '13 11:52:40 PM by ZekeFreek

Much like how I don't understand how a game like Halo got an M rating, I don't know how Soul Nomad got a T rating. But the game is hardly their magnum opus.

There are tons of games that lose nothing if you take away the gore. I say maybe they should think about it. Hitting a wider audience is actually quite beneficial. It can justify trying new ideas and new aesthetics. Narrowing your audience to only people that are used to being a part of your audience is basically what caused the comics industry to collapse. But if you have bred a market where gamers will actually lose interest in a game that lacks gore merely because "They're pandering to non-gamers" or "They're afraid of moral guardians" you've actually created just as bad of a scenario as actually pandering to non-gamers or being afraid of moral guardians.

I remember that Conan MMORPG had a big problem with this. Part of the selling point was that it was an M-rated MMO and they played up that "They didn't have to worry about pleasing a wide audience we can do what we want." angle so when the game was released the playerbase became incredibly defensive about it. Any changes that might possibly be construed as censorship caused them to go apeshit. OH GOD THEY'RE PUTTING SOME CLOTHES ON THE HAREM GIRLS IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD. They adopted a rather hostile "If you don't like it leave" attitude. And for the most part a lot of players did exactly that.

I literally cannot comprehend what your saying. Pandering to every possible audience is the worst thing you could ever do.

I think it's better than pandering to only one audience.

Not that that's what I'm asking for. I'm saying games as a whole need to start targeting more niches.

edited 30th Apr '13 12:15:02 AM by ShirowShirow

Why?

Where the fuck did the phrase "pandering" come from anyway?

Because it's healthy for both the industry and for gamers. There are people that don't like M-rated shooters. M-rated shooters are the face of the industry right now. Showing people that there are games they could enjoy would get people to, y'now, buy some of those games. That brings more people into the marketplace and more money. It brings in more variety so the consumer, old and new, has more choice.

Part of me is thinking "Too late" now though since the IOS apps and everything have cornered that market. The Wii proved there where countless people willing to buy a console and sit down on their couch to play something they'd like who weren't a part of the traditional gamer demographic but there was no followthrough. They drifted away and we're back to square one again.

iOS bullshit is a trend. If a bunch of hipster morons want to believe it's the future of gaming, let them. They're wrong, best to let them learn that the hard way.

Economics 101: If there's a demand, it will be filled.

Yeah. And there's demand for games beyond M-rated shootfests that could have been filled by... "Us". And it wasn't. So the games industry lost out on tons of potential cash. And the gamers lost out on tons of potential games.

edited 30th Apr '13 12:38:37 AM by ShirowShirow

Only 5% of game rated by the ESRB in 2010 received an "M" rating (So says Google). So your argument that people will never play video games because most of them are rated M is erroneous, since only a small minority are.

edited 30th Apr '13 12:46:47 AM by Benluke

That statistic doesn't work because it includes... Everything. I'm talking about the AAA industry going against the app industry. Both get rated by the ESRB (Usually) and the former has very high level of M-rated ness. Of course you fall into the pit of what exactly counts as triple A, but looking over the major releases you see plastered on a billboard at Gamestop and you'll see a whole lot of homogenization. And it goes beyond the rating of course.

Look at recent releases. Injustice and Heart Of The Swarm are the only ones with T ratings and Luigi's mansion and Lego City are the only ones with E ratings. Then there's Simcity with that weird E10+ rating. Five games of three different ratings. Compare that to Dead Island, Defiance, Army Of Two, Bioshock Infinite, God Of War, Gears of War, Tomb Raider, Metal Gear Rising and Colonial Marines. Nine games in one rating. Sure, plenty of other games have been released in between all of those. But they don't get giant billboard advertisements or TV spots. Or often even packaged cases for that matter.

Now look at what kind of games we have. The non-M rated games are pretty diverse. We have a fighting game about superheroes. We have a strategy warfare game. We have a unique open-world platformer with lots of vehicles and a game about exploring a mansion with a non-standard combat system against ghosts. You have a city builder.

Now look at the M-Rated games. Shooter, Shooter, Shooter, Shooter, Hack'n'Slash, Shooter, Shooter, Hack'n'slah, Shooter.

edited 30th Apr '13 1:21:37 AM by ShirowShirow

I pretty much am just nodding my head in agreement with Shirow Shirow on this one. o_O;

I want to be able to say 'I'm a gamer', but the sheer number of games that I have no real interest in (shooters, brawlers, other gore and cussing infused M-rated games) kind of prevents that. It's like:

"Oh, cool, you're a gamer? What're you looking forward to?"

"Enslaved Odyssey To The West! Little Big Planet! :D"

"... Those games are several years old."

"I KNOW."

edited 30th Apr '13 1:19:02 AM by Eventua

I think it's because "looking forward to" implies the game hasn't come out yet. Both those games came out years ago, and thus you can't really be looking forward to them, even if you are interested in buying them.

That said, any definition of gamer that requires constant interest in any game that come out recently is a horrible definition.

In addition to the reasons Shirow gave, that statistic also has no impact because you took the time to look it up. If the perception from the general public is that the vast majority of games are M rated, then 95% of them won't look up the truth or question that at all.

Think you're taking that post a little too literally dude.

Exactly.

As for the article that the thread is supposedly about that I finally finished... Well, basically It's what I've been saying just with narrower focus. Heh. I'm a console boy so I can't agree with him on everything, but he's given a good look at the evolution of the genre's market.

edited 30th Apr '13 4:33:54 AM by ShirowShirow

I'm tired of being asked what kinds of games I'm into. I'm like, "uh, everything but Call Of Duty and flight simulators, I guess".

edited 30th Apr '13 6:37:45 AM by ZekeFreek

Gotta agree with Shirow on the poor maturity thing.

Adding Gore and Swearing for the sake of it just doesn't make it better.

The reason why I like Shadow The Hedgehog despite that added is because of the atmosphere the stuff creates. It's just so plain narmy due to it that it's actually entertaining as a whole.

BTW, Halo's main Campaign has a lot more swearing and realistic blood, which is why it has an M Rating. This is for all versions. Also, due to its nature, online isn't exactly "kid friendly", if you will.

I thought that was why they had the "Online Interactions Not Rated By ESRB" bit tacked on

edited 30th Apr '13 7:04:55 AM by Reflextion

True.

Although that's just another factor for the players, not the exact rating. I don't know if any ratings were given due to online stuff at all. Possibly.

Well, if it's not rated by the ESRB, it can't be.

World of Warcraft is rated T, and I can't tell you how many un-kid-friendy discussions happen there every minute of every day.

I'm good as long a once in a while we get sonething special like Vanquish.

edited 30th Apr '13 7:40:29 AM by nicker

Vanquish was fun, but I honestly can't sing the praises of a game that's less than 5 hours long.

At least it was 5 hours of pure fun. Plus the point was to do the tactical challenges and replay harder difficulties including the God Hard difficulty.